Ok guys, I have just purchased a 1974 FJ-40. It has a small block chevy 350, disc brakes, power stearing, and is a automatic. It has 33" A/T and ugly rims on it now but i want to trade those for some 33" M/T's and black rock crawlers. What can yall tell me about the axles in an FJ-40? I am VERY new to toyotas (been a jeep guy for a while!). I just need good info or good sites to look for info. Thanks guys!!

Welcome MountaineerMac - seems like you have seen the light :)

Stock TLC axles are very strong - as good as if not better than a 44 front - the rear is cosidered stronger than a 44 if not comparable with a 60. If you plan on running 33's you will have no prblem with the front end - 35's are about the limit on the front without stressing the Birfields (front CV joints).

As noted at the top of this forum you might want to spend some time at IH8MUD.COM - you will find out more than you wanted to know :)


Before you spend cash on the tires, you might want to think about doing a SOA conversion, and going straight to 35's. Many folks say that lift springs are fine, then after a few months scrap them and go SOA, so you might want to ponder that before making any changes.

Other than that, just wheel the heck out of it - you will be suprised what a Cruiser can handle!

Did you get rid of the Jeep. Come over to my house and check out dads cruiser....this is seth buy the way. We cut up Hughs Zuk today...kinda fun. Oh well....lets go wheeling.

(We are going to tellico Aug 3-6....want to go????) let me know...seth

oh yea...put long fields in the front and call it good. they will handle the 35's fine. later

put a sweet auto trany cooler in if it doesnt have one, and put a rear traction bar in to save teh rear pinion and you will have a blast. jiMMy

Hey yall! I picked the cruiser up today!! We drove it home fine....then went to napa and on the way back it broke down on us. We looked for all the problems then found out there was junk in the gas tank. So we drained the gas and filtered it, So now it sounds great. Studders ever so slightly if u lay the hammer down. Is this normal for chevy 350? It isnt a big deal and i will never realy need to get off the line that fast. we replaced the gas filter and the air filter. We will replace the oil filter, oil, and spark plugs wendsday or thursday. Thanks yall and i so far it has been nuthin but fun with the Cruiser :D ;)

Seth-

Whats up, man? So Hugh got a ZUK? Sweet. My little bro has been the one posting using my screen name. I still have the XJ and its running great :D Slapped on some diamond plate since the time I scraped it up at the Globe.
I'd love to come by the house sometime this week or weekend. How's ole Hugh doing anyway? Yall staying out of trouble?
You know how much I'd like to be at Tellico that weekend but I've got a baseball tourney in Johnson City (can you believe it??:rolleyes: ) for the team I'm coaching this summer. Can you drop me an email with your # in Charlotte? dw42204@appstate.edu


Take it easy!

Mac

The gears on the cruiser are 4.11's just so you know.

I think that with an automatic tranny, you can run larger than 35's but that would be my limit with a manual tranny. The auto tranny makes it more difficult to overtorque.